As the war in Ukraine rages, the messaging app Telegram has emerged as the go-to place for unfiltered live war updates for both Ukrainian refugees and increasingly isolated Russians alike. Telegram has gained a reputation as the āsecureā communications app in the post-Soviet states, but whenever you make choices about your digital security, itās important to start by asking yourself, āWhat exactly am I securing? And who am I securing it from?ā These questions should inform your decisions about whether you are using the right tool or platform for your digital security needs. Telegram is certainly not the most secure messaging app on the market right now. Its security model requires users to place a great deal of trust in Telegramās ability to protect user data. For some users, this may be good enough for now. For others, it may be wiser to move to a different platform for certain kinds of high-risk communications. You may recall that, back when Facebook started changing WhatsAppās terms of service, a number of news outlets reported on, and even recommended, switching to Telegram. Pavel Durov even said that users should delete WhatsApp āunless you are cool with all of your photos and messages becoming public one day.ā But Telegram canāt be described as a more-secure version of WhatsApp. After fleeing Russia, the brothers founded Telegram as a way to communicate outside the Kremlin's orbit. They now run it from Dubai, and Pavel Durov says it has more than 500 million monthly active users.
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